Protesters descend on Albuquerque City Hall to decry deadly shootings

Protesters filled Albuquerque City Hall on Monday evening, forcing the city council to clear its legislative agenda and turn the podium over to citizens furious with police over a spiking number of fatal shootings.

City Council President Ken Sanchez told the Albuquerque Journal that more police officers
would be assigned to make sure the meeting was peaceful, and that
the meeting would be adjourned if tempers flared, but said the
council is mulling legislation that would create more oversight
over the department.

“We need to make some dramatic changes,” he said.
“We’re confronting a crisis situation at this time.”

Tension have been building between police and the public for
years. Wynema and Michael Gonzagowski told Cindy Carcamo of the
Los Angeles Times that, upon moving to
Albuquerque, friends warned them to avoid the police. They did
not take those warnings seriously until they watched police
fatally shoot their neighbor, Alfred Lionel Redwine on March 25.

“I’ve never been scared of crops, but out here, the cops
terrify me,” said Michael, age 39. “They treat you like
you’re out looking to cause trouble every time they talk to
you.”

Chief Eden said in a press conference that Redwine brandished a
weapon and shot at police during a standoff at a public housing
complex, forcing the officers to return fire. Wynemda Gonzagowski
disagreed, telling the Times that Redwine had surrendered to
police with his arms out when he was hit.

“They didn’t warn him, they didn’t tell him to freeze and get
on the ground or to put his hand behind his hand,” she said.

The latest resident to die was James Boyd, a 38-year-old homeless
man who was shot in the back by officers who approached him when
he appeared to be illegally camping in the Albuquerque foothills.
Video of the shooting was made public and quickly went viral,
inciting outrage from throughout the New Mexico community and
attracting international headlines.

Hundreds of people have rallied since the Boyd shooting. At least
one of the demonstrations turned violent, with protesters lobbing
rocks and bottles. The police, led by Chief Gorden Eden,
responded by donning riot gear and firing tear gas in an attempt
to disperse the crowd.

Such events have inspired a rare moment of agreement between a
city official and the American Civil Liberties Union. Inspired by
the Boyd shooting, the ACLU announced it would use Monday night’s
meeting to demand that a federal monitor be instituted to oversee
the APD with the power to implement his own reforms. Albuquerque
Mayor Richard J. Berry also asked that the Justice Department
begin to monitor the department and help the city move past its
newfound reputation.

“We have now become the embarrassment of the nation, if not
the entire world,” Ralph Arellances, director of the League
of United Latin American Citizens’ New Mexico chapter, told the
lawmakers Monday night. “We are outraged by this and our
fight against this will only grow louder and more united with
larger number until we see change.”

Meanwhile, the US Department of Justice has announced that, on
the heels of a series of demonstrations protesting police
brutality, it will release the results of its year-long civil
investigation into the Albuquerque, New Mexico police department.

The Justice Department said Monday that it would release the
results of an agency investigation into civil rights violations
and allegations that police regularly use excessive force no
later than Thursday. The police department, which has spent 16
month under the Justice department’s magnifying glass, has come
under intense public criticism after 37 police shootings, 23 of
them fatal, have come since 2010.